Slugs and snails – where many a gardener fails

Slugs and snails are going about the rather serious business of eating to live. They have no awareness of human aesthetic and culinary needs. Standing on them, dehydrating them in salt or poisoning them is cruel punishment. You may even wrongly convict one of the many species that eat only rotting vegetation.

Frogs, toads, magpies, hedgehogs and ground beetles are natural predators. They can be encouraged, e.g. by providing a garden pond and dense planting. If you poison a slug or snail, quite ironically, you poison these natural predators.

Try hand-picking slugs and snails on mild, damp evenings and putting them on the compost heap to feast on kitchen waste. Leaving out upturned citrus fruit halves overnight makes this process more manageable. Use copper or grease bands and sharp grit around pots. Plant out sturdy young plants rather than vulnerable seedlings. Avoid planting slug and snail food plants!

Infecting them with nematode worms is an unpleasant but natural method where culling is deemed essential.

NB. Google may serve up ads for 'slug killers' due to the presence of the word 'slug' in this post.

Mulch more, feed less?

Mulching excludes light and therefore weeds, slows evaporation yet lets water in, and provides a fantastic habitat for invertebrates. The ideal mulch is natural and sustainable or reused/recycled e.g. wood, bark chippings or old carpet. With its typically showery weather, April is a good time for this project as the moisture will be locked in ready for the summer. Weed out perennials such as dock and dandelion by the root first.

Some people decrease bird feeding at this time of year. The argument is that there is more natural food around unless the weather is particularly poor. A natural diet is preferable for emerging young birds as it will be varied and nutritious, and it contains no added salt or other harmful food additives. If you continue to feed, avoid stale bread and whole nuts as these can cause young birds to choke, and desiccated coconut which swells in tiny stomachs as it rehydrates.

Beetle-mania

April to June is the best time to see ground beetles. These 1cm long, shiny black beetles are slug predators and can be found hiding under pots and loose piles of branches or rubble. You can lay a sheet of corrugated metal on the ground for the beetles to shelter under. As well as protecting them from predators, it buffers the temperature and moisture levels when summer arrives.

Clematis will soon produce a dense tangle of stems, an ideal bird nesting site. C. montana ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Odorata’ are excellent scented varieties. Berberis, cowslip and hyacinth will provide nectar for bees. Marsh marigolds in the pond or bog garden provide nectar for butterflies, hoverflies and other insects.

You can safely cut back any remaining perennial stems now as hibernators such as ladybirds should have left and finches took any seeds long ago. The mating season of hedgehogs, shrews and mice has begun.

Birds back from winter hols

Some summer migrant birds arrive this month after spending time in warmer winter quarters. Swallows and house martins arrive from Africa and some goldfinches return from their Spanish retreat, for example.

Cherry trees remind us that spring is in full swing. As well as providing nectar for insects they sport fruits for birds and small mammals later in the year.

A number of wildlife friendly shrubs can be pruned in April. Viburnum bodnantense has provided an important source of nectar during the winter months when few other flowers were open. Thin it out if necessary by pruning out older shoots. Flowering currants will have been visited by innumerable bumblebees and after flowering they should be cut back to old wood. Insects take nectar from cotoneasters in summer and in autumn birds will feast on the berries. Evergreen cotoneasters should be pruned now although deciduous ones are best pruned in late winter.